It’s all in the family! But who is considered family? Families can be large or small, and languages differ in the number of terms they use to describe family members. For some families you need to learn terms for relationships like co-wife.
Beginning Learners:
Start by drawing a picture of a small nuclear family of a husband and wife with perhaps 3 or 4 children. Include at least one boy and one girl among the children. Start by assigning each person a name, so you know who you are referring to. Now ask what relation each person is to the others. See if there are different words for older or younger brother or sister. Then move on to grandparents. See if there are different names for mother’s mother and father’s mother, for example. Use Look and Listen and Do to learn the words for the different family relations.
Possible vocabulary:
| Husband | Wife | Married |
| Children | Mother | Father |
| Sister (older? younger?) | Brother (older? younger?) | Grandmother (mother’s mother) |
| Grandmother (father’s mother) | Grandfather (mother’s father) | Grandfather (father’s father) |
It is a real help to draw a family tree for this lesson, or to have a family of dolls to illustrate the different people in the family.
Sample Activities:
Activity 1: Using a family of dolls or a family tree, ask your Language Helper (LH) to give each person a name. Then the LH says “This is Margarita. She is married to Pablo. Margarita is Pablo’s wife. Pablo is Margarita’s husband.” Now the LH says “Who is the wife?” You point or you say “Margarita.” LH asks, “Who is the husband? “ You point or say “Pablo” You can do similar activities to learn the names for son, daughter, brother, sister, etc.
Activity 2: Learn the grandparents names and then the LH asks “Who is Pablo’s father?” You say Roberto. “Who is Pablo’s son?” You say, “Francisco.” Now the LH asks “Who is Francisco’s grandfather?” You say “Roberto.” Note that this is mostly a comprehension activity, because you only have to say the names, but you have to understand the relational words.
Intermediate Learners:
Expand the family relationship names by moving into relationships like cousin, nephew, niece, mother-in law, father-in- law, sister-in law, aunt, uncle, etc. Again the best way to do this is to use a family of dolls or draw a family tree with names for all the people so you can be sure you understand the terms. Don’t be surprised if some of the terms show up in unexpected places.
After you learn some of the terms, ask the Language Helper (LH) to tell you about his or her family – perhaps drawing a family tree to illustrate it. Record and Listen. You can also draw your own family tree and tell your LH about it. You could also use a family album and show pictures of real people!
